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on trusting your gut

My gut is right 99.9% of the time. Life should be easy, right? Not so quick- I’d wager to say I trust my gut about 75% of the time. The other 24.99% of the time, I think back hours, days, or weeks later and scold myself for not going with my gut. In retrospect, things are always so clear. Or, as they say:

Actually, I think “they” only say the second part but this Pinterest image made me laugh.

Things are clear in hindsight, but it would be awesome if they could be so clear in the present. I’m blessed with an almost foolproof gut, but my challenge is to learn to distinguish between my gut and my other natural responses.

Sometimes I’ll have a negative gut reaction to something and think “I’m being too judgmental” or “It’s just a little thing; I should overlook it.” And you know what? Sometimes I am being too judgmental and sometimes it is just a little thing!

I’m still working on how to tell the difference but in the meantime, I have a few techniques that generally help me.

Ask other people but take it with a grain of salt: Dating someone new? Find out what other people think but remember that it’s not the end-all-and-be-all. Choose the people who you consider good judges of character 🙂

Make a weighted pro and con list: Sometimes just the act of making a pro and con list can help you realize what you really want. But take into account that everything is not valued the same. Accepting a new job? A great work environment might be a pro and a lower salary may be a con, but which do you actually value more?

How do you distinguish between following your gut and not dismissing things too quickly? Any techniques for learning to trust your gut?